A Wayward Journey
by Bunri
Summary: Thanks to a trip through an Outrealm gate gone wrong, two residents of the Outrealms find themselves stranded in Ylisse. With no idea of where to find a gate that can take them home, the two wayward travellers wind up joining the Shepherds.


Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem etc.

* * *

? POV

As I stared into the seemingly depthless light within the Outrealm gate before me, I took in a deep breath and visualized my destination, stepping into the light and allowing the gate to do the rest.

As usual, that feeling of being neither here nor there that always accompanied me during my trips had almost made me feel as if I had ceased to be.

When I was younger and accompanied my father on his trips to 'appreciate the beauty the Outrealms could offer', the experience would have left me with an unsettled gut for a good while. I eventually grew used to it though as I began to abuse the Outrealm gate for my own reasons.

That feeling had left just as quickly as it had come as the blinding blue light of the gate left my vision and was replaced by my destination, some large and odd-looking ruins.

"Hey there Lucas!" a familiar chipper voice greeting me, belonging to no other than this Outrealm's resident Anna, whose red hair and brightly coloured outfit stood out in the dreary ruins.

"Oh, hey Anna," I smiled, with the ever-present sleepy look on my face making me appear as if I was half-awake, "I see you've dropped the accent today."

"You're a regular around these parts and you know me well enough, so there really isn't much point to it," she shrugged, "The reason why I even use that ridiculous accent in the first place is to help differentiate myself from other Annas a bit with the visitors. Anyways, you're looking for Lily, right?"

"Yep," I nodded, "Some of the other Outrealms are throwing festivals so I thought going to some of them with her could help her relax a bit since she's been pushing herself a lot recently."

"If that's the case, you better be quick," Anna said with a worried frown, "The Entombed ended up springing up sooner than expected and she's trying to fight them off again."

"I guess I'll go make sure she doesn't get herself hurt too badly then," I sighed while pulling a tome out of my satchel, "see you later Anna," and with that, I broke into a run into the ruins.

* * *

Just as I entered the ruins, I was met with the sight of a couple of Entombed with their arms full of vegetables running (or whatever the right word to describe whatever way they move is) my way, no doubt trying to escape the ruins with their stolen loot.

Without a second thought, I flipped open my tome and quickly read an incantation, firing off a spell towards one of the Entombed, which was blown away by a strong burst of wind and dissolved into purple gas upon impacting onto the ground. The process was repeated to make waste of the other one as well. Since the vegetables in this Outrealm were much hardier compared to those in most other Outrealms due to the conditions they were grown in, not much damage was done to them when they flew out of the Entombeds' arms. Plunging my hand into my satchel, which had been expanded on the inside to hold more than it could, I pulled out an empty sack I had stashed in there and collected the vegetables.

With the two risen out of the way and the vegetables collected, I made my way into the village, where there was a small group of about five of them attempting to flee from the familiar figure of Lily.

With her short spring green hair flying behind her, her running speed suddenly increased, which allowed her to make her way ahead of the Entombed, where she abruptly turned around and sliced her halberd, a gift I had commissioned an Anna to forge, downwards at one of them. While the attack didn't manage to finish her target off, it did cause it to drop the vegetables it was holding onto and attempted to attack Lily in retaliation. Thanks to the slow speed of the attack, Lily easily dodged it and sliced at the Entombed once more, this time defeating it. As a slightly smaller and slower Entombed attempted to make its way past her, she stabbed it without mercy, with the monster being weak enough to simply dissolve upon receiving the attack.

After resuming her chase after the remaining three Entombed, who seemed to think that staying in a group where they could easily be picked off would be better than splitting up, Lily easily made waste of two of them, leaving nothing behind but the vegetables. As she attempted to land a finishing blow on the last one, her attack failed to finish it off, but it appeared as though the damage she inflicted had reflected onto her, leaving her open to any counterattack the her target could have landed.

If I hadn't been there of course.

Before it even had a chance to lay its claws on her, I intercepted it and focused the force of my spell to try to make it explode, resulting in the Entombed blowing up into gas and leaving the vegetables behind.

With the Entombed gone and out of the way, I turned my attention to Lily, who was down on her knees and clutching her stomach, her light pink eyes slightly swelled up with tears.

I pulled out a vulnerary from my satchel and handed it over to Lily, who eagerly took it from my hand and gulped down the liquid. Once she emptied the small bottle of its contents, I offered my hand and help her get to her feet. Lily had done her part with saving the vegetables, so the other villagers would usually let her rest and task themselves with recollecting the stolen crops.

"Thanks Lucas," she smiled gratefully, but her expression melted into a slight look of disappointment, "looks like yet again I needed you to save my butt."

I let out a small laugh, "That's just what friends are meant to do, right? Other than that, how are you feeling?"

Lily pouted in return, "Much better thanks to that vulnerary, this raid wasn't as bad as the others since this group was much smaller and weaker. I think a few might have gotten away though."

"Don't worry about that," I smirked, waving my tome and presenting Lily with the sack full of vegetables, "I made sure to make good use of my trusty tome on my way here."

"You never cease to impress, do you?" she chuckled, "It feels bad that I still needed you to save me though."

"I don't really see why you need to feel bad about it." I shrugged, "Everybody needs some help in the beginning when they try to pick up something, besides, you've only taken up defending your village's crops for what? Two months? Not as many people can grow as strong the way you do, even with Entombed. You just need some more work on your fighting style is all. Never mind that, those monsters probably think you're the monster!"

"Like you have room to talk," she grinned as she adjusted her attire, which consisted of a short brown cloak with a simple cream-coloured dress underneath that stopped above her knees, as well as brown leggings and boots, "some of the Annas from other Outrelams that stopped here in the past used to make a few coins by spreading some weird tales about you."

I cocked my head to the side, " Like what?"

"Stuff like stories of a young sage with silver hair and blue eyes with the ability to summon the spirits of the heroes of legends to do his own bidding," she answered.

"That part sounds about right," I said thoughtfully.

Lily gave me a strange look.

I chuckled, "Except for the last bit of course. What else did they say?"

"Mainly variations, like how the sage's body was cursed to be frozen in time so that his appearance would always stay like that of a youth of about fifteen or sixteen," Lily continued, "and that his face always had a sleepy look to it from not being able to find eternal rest. While those are the more popular ones, they're all pretty much really over the top."

I couldn't help but laugh a bit, "Huh, I could easily see an Anna spreading stories like that since I have close ties with some of them from traveling, but I wouldn't have expected the things they spread to be as strange."

"Hehe, people here are really eager for a strange stuff like that since there's not much to do, at least you fit the descriptions they gave about your appearance," Lily giggled, "That aside, what brought you to these parts today?"

"You, of course," I grinned, "Some of the other Outrealms are throwing festivals to celebrate their harvests so I though about taking you with me. You've been working really hard and pushing yourself lately to defend the crops here so I wanted to help you relax and reward yourself a bit."

Lily's face lit up, "As thoughtful as always Lucas, you're a real friend, you know that?"

"So I'll take that as a yes?" I asked.

"Yup!" she affirmed with an enthusiastic nod, "I'll just need to sort a few things out first."

"Alright then, meet me at the gate," I told her.

"Got it!" and with that, she broke off into a run while I made my way to the gate while exchanging greetings and helping some of the villagers.

* * *

Once I had exited the ruins, I found Anna hanging around her usual post near this Outrealm's gate and she gave me a friendly wave.

"Since I haven't seen any Entombed run by, I'm guessing you two were able to get rid of all of them?" she asked.

"Yeah," I confirmed, "According to Lily, this group was much smaller and weaker than the usual bunch so getting the job done was a lot easier. She was fine for the most part, although she needed a bit of help in the end."

"Well, that's good," a mischievous smile spread on her face, "So, did she accept your offer?"

"Uh-huh," I nodded, and noticed her running towards us, "Here she is now."

"Hey Anna!" Lily chirped once she finally caught up, "How's watching the gate been going?"

"As boring as usual," Anna replied with a displeased look on her face, "Lucas here has pretty much been my highlight of my whole day."

"That definitely doesn't sound too fun," Lily commented with a sorry expression, "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long Lucas."

Noticing she had brought her halberd along, I asked, "Why'd you bring your weapon?"

"Just as a safety precaution," Lily replied, fidgeting a little bit, "festival or not, anything could happen since these are the Outrealms we're talking about."

"If you say so," I shrugged, "You are familiar with how traveling between the Outrealm Gate works, right?"

"No, this is going to be my first time using the gate," Lily admitted, "Never had much need to, so I've never left this place."

"Simply put, you just have to visualize your destination and step into the gate and it'll do the rest," Anna explained, "Alternatively, since you've never left this Outrealm before, you can just hold Lucas' hand and think something along the lines of 'I want to go where Lucas is going."

"What if you just step into the gate just like that?" Lily inquired.

"Then you'll just end up somewhere random," I answered, "that's what I usually do most of the time."

"That's what you do most of the time?" Lily parroted, her surprise being evident on her face.

"Uh-huh," I nodded, smiling, "It's how I came across this place and inadvertently became friends with you as well. Anyways, we should get going."

"Okay," Lily said as she took hold of my hand, "We'll see you around Anna!"

"Have fun on you two!" Anna waved as we stepped into the gate, and the blue light of the gate and feeling of nonexistence proceeded washed over as we went through.

However, once the bright blue light of the gate left our eyes, the view we were met with was certainly not that of a festival.

* * *

A.N:

And that's it for the prologue!

Since I feel that I kind of failed with fleshing out my main character in my previous story, I decided to abandon it and started working on this, which I've honestly had more fun writing.

I tried to put a little bit of foreshadowing somewhere in there, but I think I might have failed with making it effective. Ah well.

I'm not entirely sure of when I'll be able to get the next chapter out, but it hopefully shouldn't take too long.

Oh and just for the heck of it, here are some roster entries I wrote for Lily and Lucas:

Lucas  
A free-spirited individual from the Outrealms. Having had to tolerate his perverted father's antics for nearly his entire life, he has built a great deal of patience. Treasures Lily as a precious friend. The one with the most deceptive appearance.

Lily  
A villager hailing from an Outrealm where vegetarian Risen are a regular threat to the crops of her village. Wishing to do something about the problem, she began to fight them off and has built up experience in combat. Treasures Lucas as a precious friend. Has the strongest bouts of homesickness.

Anyways, reviews will be appreciated!


End file.
